Ipswich Town football club yesterday fined one of its players for a pitch celebration "handcuffs" gesture supposedly in support of a convicted drink-driver friend jailed over the deaths of two young brothers in a car crash.

The club said the midfielder, David Norris, had been "warned about his future conduct". It was not clear how much the player had been fined, but the club said it would make a donation to charity.

Norris, 27, crossed his wrists on the field during the team's 1-0 win at Blackpool on Saturday. It was interpreted as being for his friend Luke McCormick, the former Plymouth Argyle goalkeeper who last month was jailed after admitting to drink driving and causing the deaths of Arron Peak, 10, and his eight-year-old bother, Ben, on the M6 in Staffordshire in June.

Yesterday the boys' family asked Norris to make a face-to-face apology for his public gesture.

The boys' mother, Amanda Peak, from Partington, Greater Manchester, said Norris had made life harder for her and "upset everybody" with the signal, which sent the wrong signal to football fans.

An Ipswich spokesman said Norris had told club officials his gesture "was in no way intended to condone or support the actions" of McCormick. But the club felt Norris had been "insensitive to the possible interpretation" of the gesture, which the player "deeply regretted".

Norris has since written "a personal and private letter of regret" to the parents of the children killed in the crash.

On June 7 this year Phil Peak had been driving his sons, Arron and Ben, in a Toyota people-carrier for a day out at Silverstone racetrack, in Northamptonshire. McCormick's Range Rover collided with the car on the motorway. Peak survived but suffered spinal and lung injuries.

McCormick, 25, had been returning from Norris's wedding in Bolton, Greater Manchester, at the time. Stoke-on-Trent crown court heard that he had spent the previous day drinking and had had two hours' sleep. He drove at about 97mph, with 74 micrograms of alcohol in 100ml of breath, against the legal limit of 35. He was banned from driving for four years and jailed for seven years and four months after admitting causing death by dangerous driving and drink driving.

The boys' mother said yesterday: "I'm finding it quite hard to deal with everything myself and I'm finding it difficult not to hate Luke McCormick and when people are doing silly things like that, it makes it very hard."

The footballer earlier said the gesture was a "private" message for McCormick.